Tuesday, 12 December 2017

Desert gaming mat

I’ve had a couple of attempts over the years of making gaming mats using latex caulking compound. My last attempt - a gaming mat for desert terrain, was my most successful.

The approach I took was to:
1. Paint a plastic backed canvas dropsheet with an undercoat of off white acrylic house paint
2. Once dry, scrape on a thin layer of grey caulking compound (painting first meant less compound was lost in the porous canvas - used less product!)*
3. Sprinkle with fine grit while soft (I used sand)
4. Once dry, paint with an acrylic house paint again - sand coloured - then dry brush with a range of other suitable colours - eg. browns and greys

*Its worth hiughlighting Lasgunpacker's comment below - there may be a durability issue with the latex not bonding as well to ;pain as it would to the canvas - good point, time will tell!

I have since completed a platoon of Bersaglieri, again from Eureka. The next step is to get them on the table for a little Operation Compass 'fun' using my recent purchase of Iron Ivan's Disposable Heroes.

Thanks! Now, that's a really interesting question. It may be so. This mat seems to fold over contours better than my previous attempts - which were had a thicker layer of caulk. The proof will be if the caulk sloughs off the mat in months/years to come. All I can say is, stay tuned.

Welcome

Thanks for dropping by! I've been interested in model soldiers, board gaming, reenacting and miniatures wargaming for over 40 years. This blog is to share occasional gaming reports, my painting and scratch building attempts and to connect with gamers worldwide. I've had a range of interests over the years from ancients to modern and 2mm to 28mm.